La prédication catholique en France au xviie siècle.

Abstract

Among the verbal controversies in use in the confessional clashes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, we rarely look at simple and ordinary preaching. Of course, it does not meet the usual criteria of disputatio; yet speakers can answer from chair to chair, and let us not forget that the great controversies were often also renowned preachers. It is unanimously considered today as a tool of persuasion, training and information intended to forge religious opinions. This is very true on the Catholic side, because the Roman Church has more means than the Protestants, multiplying everywhere the speeches and saturating in some way the space and the calendar. Limited because controlled under the reign of the peacemaker Henri IV, the offensive and polemic preaching resumed again after 1610. But is this not also a more familiar form of controversy, of proximity, often passing under the radar of the historian because acting as low noise? By arming the auditors doctrinally and theologically on a few specific points, does it not contribute to promoting a social practice of controversy, accessible to all? Even if its impact is not comparable to that of the great controversy, it is, however, both one of the springs and an extension.

Keywords

• Jesuits
• controversy
• religious clashes
• preaching
• preacher
• sermon